welcome back!

Hey, look at me! I'm wishy-washy! I've submitted and re-joined the Blogger world. While I loved the functionality of my Wordpress dashboard, I missed the simplicity of Blogger. Widgets are easier. Uploading is easier. It's just simple - which is ironic, since the whole reason I initially made the switch to Wordpress was for its simplicity. I'm not entirely sure if I can export my Wordpress blog back here, so for the time being (and possibly forever), the link to my old blog is at the top. Read it at your leisure. :)

i'm out

I'm moving... from now on, find me at Wordpress. Update your blog links and favorite places! :) See you on the other side.

a case of the mondays?

I have the ultimate case of the Mondays this morning... unlike any normal Monday morning. Today is my first day back at work, my first day apart from my baby girl and my first day in the real world. It is a little surreal - as though it is only temporary. I don't get sad until I think to myself, "It's not temporary... I'll be at work and away from Ryan every single weekday from now on"... such a bummer. Luckily, our moms are our angels/saviors/best grandmas ever because they will be watching her for us while we're at work. I feel like it's going to be such a burden for them, but they both insist they want nothing more than to be with the baby whenever they have the opportunity - so I dropped Ryan off with my mom this morning. The routine was much more hectic than it used to be before work... with her and the dogs and making sure we have our lunches and her hat and the dogs have been fed and walked... it makes for a long morning before we've even left the house. It was so rushed I didn't have much of a chance to be sad when I left her -although I definitely am now! I brought a cute picture of her for my desk... not quite the same, but it's nice to look at those chubby cheeks while I'm working. :)

Back to work... ugh.

polaroid post

my favorite little baby

there's five of us now!

finally...

The day after Thanksgiving is the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season. Normally, we would have completely decorated the house by Friday night but the baby slows things down a bit... we finished last night, though. Our tree is up - with ornaments and new LED lights to satisfy Steve - with our brand new Crate and Barrel tree skirt to satisfy me - and most importantly, with a few presents underneath it! It's so cute to see little gifts with tags "To: Ryan... From: Mommy and Daddy" sitting under the tree. Last year at Christmas we were hoping for this miracle (who is sleeping next to me on the couch) and a few weeks later we found out she was on her way... and now here she is. Pretty crazy.


She had her two month appointment (ugh - shots) last week and was 11 lbs. 7 oz. - growing pretty fast! It's so sad - she's outgrown all of her newborn clothes and a lot of her 0-3 clothes! At BabyGap, which is her favorite store (of course), she's in 3-6 months! Where does the time go? Seriously. Where does it go? My maternity leave is almost over. I only have one more week home with her and I am heartbroken. My favorite time of the day is cuddling on the couch with her while we watch the Today show... she really loves the lights and colors of the TV... and I eat my breakfast while she laughs and coos next to me. It's so much fun and I'm going to miss it!

Ugh. Back to work already??? What a bummer.

Thanksgiving was delicious, as usual. We had a difficult time fitting in two Thanksgiving dinners, which is beyond me. We live in the same town as both sets of parents yet it never ceases to be problematic. Can't wait until Christmas! Regardless, we all got to talk to my dad on the phone after dinner and I went home feeling sufficiently stuffed full of casseroles and potatoes and corn pudding and turkey... just enough to ruin my post-partum skinny diet. Oh well. It's the holiday season, right?

Last but not least, we booked our trip to NYC for Valentine's Day (cannot wait!) and I bought my plane ticket to go see my best friend in the whole wide world (and her new little man, Sawyer!) a few weeks before that... our babies will finally get to have a playdate! He's going to be born any day now and Ryan and I are eagerly awaiting our trip to visit. :) I haven't seen Sara since my birthday last year so our short little trip will be full of best friend talk, babies and good old Kansas City BBQ. Yum.

happy two months, baby

She's two months old. Wow.

I don't think I'm being hormonal - this is just a touching song! It's a wonderful thing to hear on a day when I'm super tired from being up with little miss Ryan last night. How can the song not bring tears to your eyes??? It's perfect for her two month birthday.







On another topic - look at me, learning how to post videos. :)

i could eat her

My kid is so cute.

sleepy sunday

This entire weekend was a blur - we spent the past two days redecorating/rearranging a few rooms in the house. We realized that we had never really used our dining room since we moved in - whenever we needed a table to eat at, we used the one in the kitchen (which we hated - the table, not the kitchen). Basically, our large dining room was a huge waste of space. To make more functional use of the space, we sold our kitchen table (love Craig's List!) and moved our dining room table into the kitchen... and bought furniture for our "new" living room! It's not quite finished but it's already my new favorite room in the house. We were worried we would have to repaint (therefore removing my pretty orange paint) but Steve likes it with the orange - phew. Finally, we painted part of the kitchen "toasty gray" to compliment the table. It was a busy Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning.

Ryan is almost two months old and I can't believe it. She smiles a lot now and has recently discovered her fists - which she likes to put in her mouth. She loves bathtime and spends a lot more time awake and happy during the day - a lot of the time she is just wide awake and looking around... taking in her surroundings... which is so cute. She has outgrown a lot of her newborn clothes (so sad!) and was 10lbs. 12oz. at her doctor's appointment last week - she will surely be 11lbs. by her two month appointment. Eleven pounds! Such a big girl. Finally, she has started sleeping longer stretches at night - usually 4-5 hours for the first stretch (although we had a six hour night last week!) and 2-3 hours for her second stretch. She's a pretty good sleeper, thank goodness. Her tummy troubles are over and she is on a new fancy formula and she feels so much better. :)

My best friend is due in ONE MONTH! I can't wait! Between now and next May, Ryan will be gaining seven new baby friends... something was definitely in the water this year.

i can see russia from my house

Since I am not the greatest at figuring out this whole blog thing... I'll just post the link rather than waste my time trying to post the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZfM5LluYqw

Seriously?

Happy six week birthday, baby Ryan! :)

thank you, god!

fingers crossed...

Sitting here... waiting for history to take place... change is coming!

eight+ inches... gone!

gone til november

• Ryan is going to be a banana for Halloween!
• I have an appointment tomorrow for my first haircut in ohhhhhh, seven months... I have decided to officially do a major chop. It's way way too long.
• Steve and I are doing the HeartWalk in DC this Saturday - and bringing Luke! He's going to have a ball...
• It's hard to keep your house clean with a new baby at home.
• The Indonesian Peanut Saute at Noodle & Co. is a new fave.
• Last Friday was our first night "out" - drinks and schmoozing at some bars in Fairfax... never would have imagined, but after so long without alcohol, I actually don't miss it that much.
• Eight more days until the election - cannot wait.
• Babies poo a lot.

sleeping beauty

Little miss Ryan had her portraits taken at our house on Sunday... she slept through the majority of them until we tried to have some taken with Daddy. Otherwise, she was the perfect little model! I can see her getting bigger now that she's almost a month old... it's so sad! Of course, I was already dreading her getting any bigger when she was a few days old... but what can you do. She's asleep in her swing right now - word of advice to the eight (yes, EIGHT) pregnant people in my life: buy the swing. It will save your sanity. She has been napping for about two hours now, allowing me to shower in peace, get dressed, clean bottles (fun!) and get on the computer for a few quiet minutes... swings are great. D batteries are your friend.

bagh-daddy-o

My dad has been visiting since October 4th (pretty funny that I actually thought the baby would wait until after his arrival to join us)... and he's leaving on Saturday. So sad. Two weeks went by way too fast. Luckily, we're meeting up in January to go skiing in Canada... so we don't have to wait another six months to see him. Ryan will be so big by January - hard to believe.

Speaking of Ryan, she's wearing little blue jeans (babyGap!) for the first time today. She's asleep next to me on the couch while I watch the debate on Tivo

life gets in the way

I don't have much time to blog anymore (big surprise)... but even less so this week. We were in the hospital the majority of the week - Ryan's umbilical stump fell off and we were greeted with a nasty infection underneath. After taking her to the doctor Monday afternoon, we were sent straight to the children's hospital at Fairfax Inova. We had no idea we would be admitted that night and stuck there until Thursday afternoon... but we were! Ryan was a great little patient - she had the tiniest IV ever and a newborn-sized hospital gown and she was such a trooper. The doctors were concerned that she had a urachal remnant, which would have meant the infection spread to her bladder. Luckily, it was just a local infection inside her bellybutton and it looks much better today!

She still has just as much hair as she did two weeks ago... and we're still just as tired.

one crazy week

Ryan is one week old! I have been a mommy for one whole week and what a crazy and unbelievable week it has been... she is amazing and wonderful and so adorable - I could go on forever. Steve went back to work today so this was my first day at home alone with her and the dogs... it's a lot of work - but definitely worth every tiring minute. :)

P.S. I've lost 30 pounds in one week!

Childbirth is the ultimate weight loss tool.

i'm in love

Ryan Kennedy Velasco

September 25, 2008

10:16am 8lbs. 4oz. 21 inches

big old belly!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done...

suburban rhythm

We are officially a two adult, one child, two dog, homeowning, SUV driving family... who knew? As much as I was in love with my cute car, we chose to give up the 4dr sedan lifestyle and become a member of the SUV club. Don't get the wrong idea... we didn't buy a gas guzzler. Of course, anything we could have bought would get less mpg than the other car, but we were mindful of the mpg when we were car shopping. So, we are now the owners of an brand new awesome CRV in taffeta white (searched high and low for that color!)... had to stay in the Honda family, of course... now we have enough room for us, the baby and the dogs - comfortably!

I am really enjoying my time off, too. ;)